Joseph Bowman (frontiersman)

Joseph Bowman (1752-14 August 1779) was a major in the Virginia state militia during the American Revolutionary War. He served as George Rogers Clark's second-in-command during the Illinois campaign, and he was killed by an accidental gunpowder explosion after Vincennes' recapture.

Biography
Joseph Bowman was born in Frederick County, Virginia in 1752, the son of German colonists; his maternal grandfather, Jost Hite, was the first European to settle west of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In 1774, Bowman served in the Virginia colonial militia during Dunmore's War, and, after the war, he joined other British colonists in moving to Kentucky. During the American Revolutionary War, he became a captain in the Virginia militia, and he served as George Rogers Clark's second-in-command during the Illinois campaign of 1778. Bowman took part in the capture of Cahokia and Fort de Chartres, which was renamed "Fort Bowman" in his honor, and he also took part in the fall of Vincennes. However, during the celebrations, a cannon exploded, tragically killing Bowman.